Baby Tea Leaves, I have loved you. I am always sad when I say goodbye to something.

Ever since that Snapple commercial where the little man plucked the baby tea leaf in the field, I have envisioned you as a metaphor for my life, plucking the good stuff out of life that makes it the sweetest and yummiest.

You've been a place for me to discover myself, to trudge my way through the ups and downs of motherhood and through my post-partum weightloss. You've allowed me to share all my embarrassing moments, my redecorating and my breakthroughs and rants. And you've allowed me a place to just list off all the stuff I didn't feel like writing into a paragraph format.

Today I am moving on to a new phase in my life and hoping to inspire other mommies everywhere to BE BOLD! AND TO WEAR THEIR CAPES OUT LOUD! Or to just read about my journey in trying! So come join me over at Average Moms Wear Capes. And for the record, the commercial that inspired this blog so long ago:

Sunday

Like my blurry photo!? That's me at Saturday's sprint at O-Dark-30 in the morning.

Well well well, isn't this bittersweet! This is my last race report here at Baby Tea Leaves and that's because first thing Monday morning, specifically at MIDNIGHT I am switching to my new blog, http://www.averagemomswearcapes.com/ !!!!! Finally! A URL for you! Now, you'll notice I am totally making you wait till midnight on Sunday night/slash/Monday morning to get in to see it because I'm silly like that, but my new blog will be called "Average Moms Wear Capes" and you can follow me now on Twitter at @MomsWearCapes, too. I'm really excited about it! So don't leave me, ok?

My first post over there will be there at midnight Monday morning along with my first giveaway! And it'll be followed by an entire week's worth of giveaways of all my favorite things, all to end with a giant Twitter Party on Sunday, Aug. 8th, at 8pm ET with even more giveaways! It's a week-long celebration! Hurrah! AND YOU'RE INVITED! Can you tell I'm excited???

OK so now back to the race report because I got sidetracked.

It was the Top Gun Triathlon at Ft. Desoto Park yesterday where I COMPLETELY ROCKED THE SWIM! And yes, I'm not even being modest about it either because I have done 6 sprints and one Olympic and I have not conquered a single swim until now and by "conquered" I do not mean I placed in the swim, I simply mean that for the first time ever, it didn't conquer me.

And I finally figured out what I need to do. Because that's what I did.

What I need to do is go out into the water 15 minutes before the start and swim hard for 10 minutes straight until I get over that "uncomfortable cardio" experience that plagues me in every cardio activity for the first 10 minutes or first mile, whichever I am doing (swimming or running). And then, I use the last 5 minutes to walk up to the start, wait for my wave to start, start on the outside of the pack but toward the front, and swim straight out, make a hard left a bit past the bouy, and then stay well away from everyone who is bottlenecking around the bouy and all that thrashing that occurs theretowith. And then, swim straight, for a while, until I'm done. I did not stop. I did not flip over on my back to catch my breath. I just swam my ass off. I exited the water visibly fistpumping without a care in the world because I did it. I may as well have been skipping up the straightaway and maybe next time I will! But I said to myself before the race even started that this would be my race. Finally. And it was.

Of course, then I got to the bike, which is normally my most awesomest event of the three and I couldn't even make a revolution. WHAT THE HELL! I swear the witch from the Wizard of Oz passed me on her little bike with the basket in the front going about 8 miles an hour at a leisurely pace! About halfway through, I figured out why.

My brake was pressing against my wheel.

Dumbass.

So I reached down and tried to pull it without getting my fingers caught in the wheel and bam. I could move again. But I wasted half the ride like a big dummy. NOTE TO SELF: CHECK THE WHEELS BEFORE THE RACE!

Oh the HIGHS AND THE LOWS!
Well of course then because I spent so many revolutions straining on the bike, my run legs were pretty worn, so I did a pretty slow 5k BUT WHO CARES! I CONQUERED THE SWIM! So there. I came in 56th out of 94 with a time of 1:28 and actually my goal was 1:28, can you believe it? Anyway, I'm so excited about the swim I can't even stand it! So that's my race report. Short and sweet.

My favorite parts were passing the people who passed me first because they were starting to peter out and I was just getting started. And I think that's the thing I love most about "endurance" and why it is called such. Because at the beginning it's not so good, but then you get going, and then you start to endure and then it feels really sort of good and ok and you realize you have built a bit of endurance! And the people who haven't figured it out are like the hare, and they go out hard and they start to sluff off at the end, so that people like me who may start out slow or at least continue the same pace might pass your ass after you pass me! I'm kidding. Sort of.

So that's the short and sweet of it.

But I do have a quickie pre-race story.

I had left the beach around 4 a.m. to get to the race by 5, and I went with the van all packed up with our beachstuffs and my bike and I went alone so everyone else could sleep, clean up the place where we stayed and pack what was left and head home on their own.

But I never like driving at 4 a.m. by myself, especially on a long empty interstate with a lot of nothing in between. I ended up kind of driving in a small pack of cars all going the same-ish speed and I noticed a tiny car kind of swerving within its lane up ahead. I noted to self to stay away from that car because it looked like there might be a "Crazy" in it and you know how your mom tells you that only the crazies are out at that hour, so I stayed far behind until I couldn't anymore and then I passed quickly.

So then I noticed that car and another I had been sort of aware of going up this long, long stretch of highway, both turned off the exit I was turning and then they all seemed to be making all the same turns I was making and eventually turning into the same parking lot of the triathlon where I was turning into and the tiny crazy car turned into the parking spot right next to me.

Well that "crazy" turned out to be a USA TRIATHLON official! Which are the people who make sure everyone is following all the rules and who issue out the penalties in triathlons for doing bad things like drafting. Funny how some crazies turn out to not be crazies at all. And a bit of ironic too, since I had been driving "with" that person for more than 20-something miles of interstate.

Anyway, I guess it's a good thing I didn't have any sort of road rage and cut her off or anything (not that I would do that) or I could have been on her bad side at the get go. You really never know who's in the car next to you!

The end.

So join me over at Average Moms Wear Capes starting tomorrow! Each day there will be a new giveaway and each giveaway only lasts 24 hours! So you have to get all up on that shizzle! Fo sho! Follow me on Twitter. Subscribe to my blog.

Saturday

*Totally not the right picture! Meant to upload something else. Have no idea what happened there. The woes of Blackberry Blogging.*

I left the beach before evryone else to go to another beach for the Top Gun Triathlon this morning. I had the best swim yet and I figured out my secret! Can't wait to share it all!! Plus some other random facts I learned today. Back soon with the full race report!
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